QCAR

Quantifying Carbon Sequestrations across Indiana's Forest Landscapes

Duration:01/2007 - 12/2007
Award Amount:$30,000

Participants
EAS- Qianlai Zhuang
ENR- Guofan Shao
Phillip Pope
Charles Michler
School of Civil Engineering-Melba Crawford

Project Objectives

Carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems is an appealing and viable option for decreasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Many forests, ranging from young plantations to old-growth natural forests, could be managed for effective sequestration of carbon. Managed forests in the US currently remove 300 million metric tons of carbon each year – equivalent to about 17 percent of the total annual U.S. greenhouse emissions. If the U.S. carbon sink were managed more effectively, it could be maintained and even expanded over the next 50 to 100 years before plateauing.

Based on forest inventory data in Indiana, the total atmospheric carbon sequestered by Indiana’s forests is equivalent to about 35 percent of the CO2 emissions from gasoline consumed in Indiana. Indiana has the highest timber volume per acre of timberland among states in the North Central region. Better forest management, such as thinning, can stimulate continued forest growth and increase carbon sequestration in Indiana. By growing a greater volume of hardwood trees, the total future carbon sink in Indiana can be easily doubled or tripled. Further, carbon sequestration can be enhanced through sustainable forest management practices, while promoting oak regeneration and maintaining forest health. Therefore, carbon-oriented forest management will be an acceptable practice in forestry. Increased carbon sequestrations (carbon credits or commodities) from the practice could also become an incentive for forest landowners.

In this study, we will explore critical techniques used for extracting spatially explicit information about forest distribution and structure, and for integrating this information with climate and soil data to quantify and forecast carbon sequestration across Indiana’s current forest landscapes. We will use the existing models to examine the effects of tree species, forest types, age, management strategy, and disturbances on carbon sequestration. We will conduct a preliminary investigation, focusing on a limited number of forest stands for which detailed descriptive data will be collected during the current year and for which records have been maintained during the past 10 years.